December 8, 1980 : The 36th Anniversary of John Lennon’s Death

We all know far too well the tragic events of the night of December 8, 1980 when John Lennon was shot and killed outside of the Dakota apartment building where he had made his home for over six years. There was a previous post on this blog about the Dakota entitled “The Famed Dakota: The Lennon Residence (1973 – 1980)” “.

We must remember that John Lennon’s murder occurred before the advent of widespread 24 hour cable news. In 1980 the public was 16 years away from the internet becoming mainstream and 25 years before social media. Cable News Network was only a few months old and carried on a minimal amount of cable systems. The news of the murder was first announced to the public at 11:50 pm EST during a broadcast of Monday Night Football, the famous weekly football show on the ABC Network. People on the East Coast of the U.S. had already had their 11:00 pm news and if they were not watching Monday Night Football, they would find out in the morning from newspaper, radio or television report.

At the hospital, Yoko Ono asked that the news not be released until she was able to get home and inform her son Sean, as she thought he was likely up watching tv with his nanny and did not want him to find out the devastating news from a television report.

The way the announcement of Lennon’s death got out was just by coincidence. Alan J. Weiss, the producer of WABC-TV News, the local ABC affiliate station in New York City, had a motorcycled accident and was in the emergency room waiting to be treated by a doctor. Weiss saw Lennon get wheeled in surrounded by eight or nine NYPD officers.

Weiss called the WABC news room and told the assignment editor on duty, and the news immediately went out to ABC News president Roone Arledge, who coincidentally had the duo role of being the executive producer of Monday Night Football.

That night Monday Night Football featured the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins. When Howard Cosell was informed of the news and told to announce it, he balked at first, stating that he did not think that Monday Night Football should not break such devastating news to the American public. Finally, after discussing it with sidekick Frank Gifford, Cosell made the first public announcement of Lennon’s murder. This is the video from that famed 1980 broadcast:

Ironically, six years before in 1974, John Lennon joined Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football as a guest commentator. Having never seen an American football game, Lennon gave his analysis. He stated of the madness of the football crowds that “it makes rock concerts look like tea parties.” This is the video of Lennon’s 1974 appearance on Monday Night Football:

As can be imagined, the New York City Police Department kept a massive group of officers guarding Mark David Chapman because they were aware that John Lennon was so loved by so many that the NYPD did not want an incident similar to Jack Ruby’s shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963.

Trini Lopez: More Than a Footnote in Beatles History

lopez

Today is the 53rd anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While there is no connection between the JFK assassination and The Beatles, there is one remote coincidence with someone in the Beatles’ history.

Trini Lopez is not well known in Beatles history, but his intriguing connection to The Fab Four is most unique.

Trinidad “Trini” Lopez III was born in Dallas to Mexican immigrant parents. Despite his sophomore class in high school voting him “The most likely to succeed”, he was forced to drop out of school during his senior year to go to work to help his family economically. However, the “Most likely to succeed” moniker certainly came true during his career.

His 1963 song “If I Had a Hammer” reached number one in 36 different countries and peaked at number three in the U.S. He charted 13 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Lemon Tree”, which reached number 20. Two other songs, “Kansas City” and “I’m Comin’ Home, Cindy”, also scored in the Top 40.

“If I Had a Hammer” was written by Pete Seeger, the American folk singer and social activist who was a 1936 graduate of Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Connecticut. Peter, Paul and Mary would also score a number ten hit with “If I Had a Hammer” in 1962, a year before Lopez’ different and distinctive version of the song.

In 1959 producer Snuff Garrett tried to hire Lopez to front a post-Buddy Holly version of The Crickets, but Lopez was determined to make it on his own. After singing with a label, his 1963 live album Trini Lopez at P.J.’s bolted him onto the radar screen with commercial success and critical acclaim, with the album’s most popular song being “If I Had a Hammer.” The singer also had a minor role in the 1967 cult classic movie The Dirty Dozen, which is famous for its all-star cast.

Lopez’ connection to The Beatles is amazing. From January 16, 1964 to February 4, 1964, Lopez played on a bill with The Beatles at The Olympia Theatre in Paris, along with French singer Sylvie Vartan. The three acts played two shows each night during the week and three shows on weekends. Lopez received top billing for this engagement and The Beatles actually opened for him. After this stand at the Olympia Theatre ended on February 4th with The Beatles opening for Lopez, the four boys made their live U.S. television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show only four days later on February 8. Needless to say, the world of the four lads from Liverpool changed drastically in those four days.

In an interview with Gary James on ClassicBands.com, Lopez elaborated on The Beatles opening for him for almost a month in Paris:

“What happened was, we got booked into the Olympic Theatre, right before they came to America. We were there for a whole month in Paris. Two shows a night, three on Saturday. I used to steal the show from them every night! The French newspapers would say “Bravo Trini Lopez! Who are The Beatles?” Can you believe that? They didn’t have much of an act. They used to just stand there and shake their heads with the hair. The girls loved that hair. We were there in January ’64 for a whole month. In fact, when we finished doing the shows, the last night we were there, reporters came to my dressing room. My dressing room was next to theirs and they said “Mr. Lopez, The Beatles are leaving tomorrow for New York. Do you think they’ll be a hit?” I said “I don’t think so.” I whispered ’cause I didn’t want them to hear me. They said “Why not?” I said “Because in America there’s a group I like much better than these guys called The Beach Boys.” And I really liked ’em much better. Little did I know…(laughs) Unbelievable. But, it was a great experience being with them.”

In this same interview, the famed Mexican-American performer acknowledges that he got his start working for a few years performing at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club in his native Dallas. The Carousel Club was a night club owned and operated by Ruby, and had obvious connections to crime syndicates. Lopez stresses in the interview that contrary to popular belief, Ruby did not help him secure his first record deal and did not advance his career at all. By the time Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, Trini Lopez was already an established international star with “If I Had a Hammer” a number one hit throughout the globe in 36 countries, in addition to the many other nations where it placed high on the charts.

Ironically, one odd coincidence between the Kennedy assassination and pop music is not well known. There have been conspiracy theorists who spin that so many important people coincidentally happened to be in Dallas on the day of the assassination such as former Vice President Richard Nixon flying out of Love Field that morning; also, theories abound that the primary architects of Operation Mongoose, the CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, were in the city as well. Many other important names can be found in these unsubstantiated stories and conspiracy theories.

However, what are the odds that the artists with the number song on the Billboard Hot 100 on that very day were in Dallas on November 22, 1963? The number one song on that fateful day was “I’m Leaving It All Up to You” by Dale and Grace. This duo with the top song in the land was in Dallas on that day as part of the “1963 Caravan of Stars” tour, organized by Dick Clark. They were scheduled to appear on the night of November 22 at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, which was only three blocks from Dealey Plaza. Needless to say, the concert was canceled. Dale and Grace, and the other performers, were staying at a hotel right near Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination. Lists of the noteworthy people who were alleged to have been in Dallas on that day do not include Dale and Grace, who were in the midst of a two week run at the top of the charts.

There was a period of 79 days between the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963 and the wildly famous appearance of the four Liverpudlians on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 8, 1963 in which young people could sense the stagnancy in the morale of the country. Many children were forced to watch the unfolding drama in Dallas and the president’s funeral when they would have rather been outside playing with friends. This 79 day interim after the tragic assassination ended “Kennedy 1960’s” ushered in among the younger generation and even some adults a feeling of youth, fun, and positive energy that was conspicuously absent in the soul of the country during the dark 79 day period. The Beatles were obviously ready to move on after opening for Trini Lopez in Paris during that time period. The United States was ripe for their energetic live national television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show to say the least.

What does your father do for a living?

As is well-known, the four Beatles came from humble origins, which is reflected in the professions of their fathers.

James McCartney (1902 – 1976) – James McCartney was known as “Jim”. His eldest son, James Paul McCartney, was known as “Paul” to avoid confusion with his father. While Jim McCartney had an avocation as a musician in a ragtime jazz band at various points in his life, he spent almost all of his working life in the cotton trade, mostly as a salesman. A previous post on this blog details the ironic twist that he met his wife, Mary Mohin, while taking refuge during a Nazi air raid of Liverpool.

Harold “Harry” Harrison (1909 – 1978) – Harry Harrison began his working life as a ship’s steward on the White Star Line, and after marrying his wife shifted to become a bus driver for the rest of his career. He drove both school buses and city buses. Paul McCartney attended the same primary school as George Harrison and in an interview related a humorous tale about the day that Harry Harrison came to the school to have a word with George’s teacher, which is available on YouTube.

Richard Starkey (1913 – 1981) – Richard Starkey worked for many years as a confectioner in a big bakery. In his later years he worked as a window washer in Bolton. Divorced from Ringo’s mother when the future Beatle was only three, he saw his son on infrequent occasions after that.

Alfred Lennon (1912 – 1976) – “Freddie” Lennon was a merchant marine and afterwards worked as a kitchen porter and dishwasher at major hotels, mostly in London. Contrary to the widespread urban legend, Freddie Lennon did not abandon John when he was young and then show up with his hand out when John was famous. Freddie was forced out of his son’s life and made many failed attempts to be a good father. The best source is Daddy Come Home: True Story of John Lennon and His Father, a 1990 book by Pauline Lennon, who is Freddie’s much younger second wife. The book was predominantly based on Freddie’s unpublished autobiography that he wanted given to John after his death so that his son would know the true story of his father’s life and the numerous attempts to be a good father. Interestingly, a February 26, 2014 article in NZ Catholic, a weekly Catholic newspaper in New Zealand, entitled “John Lennon and His Family Connections”, tells of John’s complex relationship with his father as a model of reconciliation in family relations; the article uses Pauline Lennon’s book as a main source and seems to present an adequate synopsis of her book and John’s extremely complicated relationship with his father.

Hey Hey: The Monkees vs. The Beatles ??????

The role of The Beatles in the formation of The Monkees is a subject that will have to be covered over a couple of blog posts. This one will be very simple and to the point in terms of history. Beatles fans largely do not know the Monkee connection to the Fab Four’s famous U.S. live debut on national television on February 9, 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider created the show The Monkees about a Beatles-like band and their follies. Not surprisingly, Rafelson came up with this idea right after seeing the movie A Hard Day’s Night. The pair chose four people, actor/singers Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz as well as musicians Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith, to comprise this fictitious band which was widely referred as “The Pre-Fab Four”. The show The Monkees debuted in the fall of 1966 and lasted for two seasons. The show premiered to rave reviews and a widespread audience.

The band’s debut album, The Monkees, sent shockwaves through the music world as it stayed at # 1 for 13 weeks and stayed on the album charts for a total of 78 weeks. Their debut single, “Last Train to Clarksville” written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, was a hit on the radio prior to the show’s debut and climbed to number one for a single week on November 5, 1966. Two months later, The Monkees struck gold with the Neil Diamond-penned classic “I’m a Believer”, which topped the charts for a whopping seven weeks. A year later, The Monkees held the top slot on the charts for all four weeks of December 1967 with “Daydream Believer”, penned by former Kingston Trio member John Stewart. The band had many other Top 40 hits, including “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You”, a Neil Diamond song which hit number two; “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, a Gerry Goffin/Carol King song which reached number three; “Valleri”, a Boyce/Hart-penned song that hit number three.

It should be noted that while Carole King and Neil Diamond were established and successful songwriters in the industry, each artist did not achieve success as a performer until after The Monkees had hits with their songs. Likewise, Boyce and Hart had their only hit as performers, “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite” after The Monkees scored hits with the songs Boyce and Hart penned for them.

What many Beatles fans do not know is the irony that future Monkees lead singer Davy Jones, at the age of 18 years old, performed a solo on the same famous episode of The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 in which The Beatles made their monstrously successful U.S. live television debut. Jones was appearing on Broadway in Oliver! in the role as the Artful Dodger, for which he received a Tony nomination. This is the video of Davy Jones’ aforementioned performance on that famous show, which was not remembered because of the performance that night of four of his fellow Brits.

In later years, Jones said of sharing the bill with the Beatles on that famous night on The Ed Sullivan Show, “I watched The Beatles from the side of the stage, I saw the girls go crazy, and I said to myself, this is it, I want a piece of that.”

Following Jones’ 2012 death, in 2016 the three remaining members of The Monkees have put out an album for their 50th anniversary and are touring. The three surviving Monkees appeared on CBS Sunday Morning on May 29, 2016 about their 50th anniversary and album. The album is entitled Good Times!

While it is unique that Davy Jones was part of Beatles history that fateful night two years before the debut of The Monkees, the other three members of The Monkees have some unique factoids in their history:

Peter Tork – The father of the Monkee that made all the girls swoon was prominent in his own right. The future Monkee grew up in Mansfield, Connecticut, right next to the town of Storrs where the University of Connecticut is located. Tork’s father was a longtime and highly distinguished professor of economics at the University of Connecticut. In fact, during the years that The Monkees were on television and afterwards, some UCONN students took courses with his father just for the novelty of taking a course with Peter Tork’s father; some of these students found he was such a great professor that they developed an interest in economics and switched their majors to economics. This is the obituary of Tork’s accomplished father.

Mike Nesmith – Aside from writing the 1967 hit “Different Drum” for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys, there is something interesting in the family background of Mike Nesmith. In the late 1940’s, Bette Nesmith was a divorced working mother supporting her son by working as a secretary. In the dark ages of manual typewriters, Mrs. Nesmith was constantly frustrated by having to start over a document if a mistake were made. She developed her own self-styled white “correcting fluid” to make her work easier. Over time she fine-tuned and improved this typewriter correction fluid, finally getting it patented and then selling commercially as Liquid Paper. The former secretary’s Liquid Paper empire skyrocketed and at the time she sold it to Gillette in 1979 for $48 million, the company was employing almost three hundred people and producing over 25 million bottles of their famous correction fluid each year. At the time of her 1980 death, Mike Nesmith’s mother’s estate was worth an estimated $100 million; the ex-Monkee inherited $50 million, while the rest was earmarked for charity. Mrs. Nesmith’s amazing story conveys how a hard-working single mother on the economic fringes can create not only a financially successful company, but one that creates jobs for hundreds of other hard-working people.

Micky Dolenz – Both of Micky Dolenz’ parents were noted actors, George Dolenz and Janelle Johnson. Micky himself was a child actor. Dolenz, a friend of John Lennon who participated in many early morning jam sessions with the ex-Beatle, in 2005 worked for six months as a DJ at WCBS-FM in New York, the station that is noted for playing more songs of both The Beatles and ex-Beatles’ solo work than any other station in the U.S. A famous Hollywood anecdote concerns the casting of the show Happy Days, which aired on ABC from 1974-1984. In 1973, a then unknown Henry Winkler was called to read for the role of the famous Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli. Winkler walked into the office and saw the iconic Micky Dolenz waiting to read for the Fonzie role, too. Winkler thought he did not stand a chance against Dolenz and contemplated walking out, but held his ground, auditioned and won the role. Micky Dolenz has said over the years, “Only Henry Winkler could have played Fonzie”.

John Lennon praises Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” in final interview hours before his death

As has been frequently mentioned in books about The Beatles, George Harrison and John Lennon shared in common a favorite song of all-time: “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, the 1967 mega-hit by Procol Harum. Paul’s favorite song of all-time is the 1964 Moody Blues’ early hit “Go Now”, which featured Denny Laine on lead vocals and guitar. Laine left the band shortly after that hit and before The Moody Blues were to experience international stardom. When Paul was putting together his new band, Wings, in 1972, the first person he hired was Denny Laine. Laine was the sole constant member in Wings during their 1972-1981 existence.

However, John Lennon had another favorite song. This song was not his all-time favorite, but the last favorite song of his life. In the several days before his death in December 1980, the ex-Beatle was extremely “high” on Bruce Springsteen’s new song “Hungry Heart” from the album The River, which was getting a ton of airplay that week and climbing the charts where it would eventually reach the number five position. In his last interview ever, only a few hours prior to his murder on December 8, 1980, he said that “Hungry Heart” was his favorite song on the radio at that time and how much he enjoyed it. In the aftermath of his death, both Time and Newsweek mentioned that Lennon was in awe of “Hungry Heart” in his final week.

Some articles in music magazines mention that John was taken aback by Springsteen’s The River album in general, particularly “Hungry Heart”, which made him think he should have included some of his heavier songs like “Serve Yourself” on his Double Fantasy album. MTV published the famous Rolling Stone interview on the anniversary of Lennon’s death, entitled “John Lennon’s Final Rolling Stone Interview”. Discussing John’s views on the pressures of superstardom, it quotes the ex-Beatle as saying, “And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he’s no longer God ….. they’ll turn on him and I hope he survives it.”

“Hungry Heart” was unique in that backing vocals were provided by Marc Volman and Howard Kaylan, the lead singers and founding members of The Turtles. The two performed as the duo “Flo and Eddie” in the 1970’s. The Turtles had a popular number one hit, “Happy Together“, which topped the charts for three weeks beginning on March 25, 1967; in addition, they had four other top ten hits: “It Ain’t Me Babe” (# 8 in 1965), “She’d Rather Be with Me” (# 3 in 1967), “Elenore” (# 6 in 1968), and “You Showed Me” (# 6 in 1969).

“Hungry Heart”, though today a staple of classic rock and perceived as a major hit, did not hit number one on the charts. In fact, to this day, Bruce Springsteen amazingly has never had a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. He came so very close in 1984 when “Dancing in the Dark” reached number two and stayed in the second slot for an astounding four weeks, never making the jump to number one. “Dancing in the Dark” was the first track released off of the international smash album Born in the U.S.A. What boggles the mind is that Born in the U.S.A. set the record for being the album with the most top ten singles yet none of these seven songs reached number one. In addition to “Dancing in the Dark”, the following six songs from the 1984 album scored in the top ten on the charts: “Cover Me” (# 7), “Born in the U.S.A.” (# 9), “I’m Goin’ Down” (# 9), “Glory Days” (# 5), “I’m on Fire” (# 6), and “My Hometown” (# 6).

Springsteen’s signature song, “Born to Run“, the title track from his 1975 breakthrough album, only stayed in the Top 40 for five weeks, unbelievably peaking at number 23.

Ironically, Springsteen wrote a song that topped the charts. “Blinded by the Light” was on his very first album, Greetings from Asbury Park,, in 1973. Three years later, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band put out a most funky version of “Blinded by the Light”, which reached number one for one week on February 19, 1977.

The album Born in the U.S.A. has a unique place in history. At the time of its release, albums and cassette tapes were still the norm; in fact, the cassette version offered an additional song, “Pink Cadillac”, as a means to prevent people from buying the vinyl album and letting other people tape it on cassette. CD’s were a couple of years away from the mainstream. The CD version of Born in the U.S.A. believe it or not was actually the first CD to be manufactured in the U.S.A. The first CD ever issued occurred in October 1982 with Billy Joel’s 1978 album 52nd Street; this very first CD and every other one were manufactured in Japan until Born in the U.S.A. was the first American-made CD in September 1984 at CBS Records’ newly opened pressing plant in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The famous music website UltimateClassicRock.com has an article on Billy Joel’s 52nd Street being the first ever CD issued entitled “33 Years Ago: Billy Joel’s ‘52nd Street’ Becomes First Compact Disc Released”, as well as an article on entitled “31 Years Ago: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ Becomes First American-Made Compact Disc”.

Springsteen’s highly anticipated autobiography Born to Run will be released worldwide on September 27. One can only speculate that the autobiography will include something about John Lennon’s touching endorsement of “Hungry Heart” only hours before the ex-Beatle’s tragic death.

It was most unusual for John Lennon to praise Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” in light of the fact that the song and his own song, “(Just Like) Starting Over”, were released three days apart and competing against each other for airplay and chart positions. While it is hard to believe that Springsteen has never had a number hit, when John Lennon praised “Hungry Heart” the ex-Beatle would only have one number one hit in the U.S. in his lifetime; even his 1971 international hit and signature solo song “Imagine” only reached number three. The only number one hit that the ex-Beatle had in his lifetime was “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”, which topped the charts for one week on November 16, 1974. Almost three weeks after John’s Lennon’s tragic death, “(Just Like) Starting Over” was a posthumous number one hit, reaching the top slot on December 27, 2016 and holding the top position for five consecutive weeks.

The famed Dakota: The Lennon Residence (1973-1980)

The whole world associates the famed Dakota building with both John Lennon’s life and death. After seven years of residency in the famed landmark building, he was tragically murdered outside this residence on December 8, 1980.

Built between 1880 and 1884 by Henry J. Hardenbergh, the creation of the Dakota was the brainchild of Edward Clark, the owner of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Located at the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West, it earned the moniker “The Dakota” because at that time the Upper West Side of Manhattan was as sparsely populated as the Dakota region of the U.S.

The history of the Dakota is too long to cover in this blog post, but the Wikipedia entry on the famed building does an adequate job. Also, the selection of Google images of the building are fascinating.

In addition, there are some great articles that will give both the history of the Dakota and insight into its legacy, such “15 Crazy Facts about New York’s Dakota Building” from Business Insider, “The Dakota: Inside New York York’s Most Extravagant Apartment Building” on Bloomberg.com, as well as “The Dakota: New York’s Most Exclusive Building” from the CNBC website.

A December 7, 2010 article in the New York Times, “Sharing the Dakota with John Lennon” by Christine Haughney, gives a brilliant look at the ex-Beatle’s years in the Dakota and his interactions with the building’s other residents. The article also cites how John and Yoko purchased an additional five apartments in the building; two were used for storage, one as a studio, and two as guest apartments.

Over the years, many famous people have resided in the Dakota. A partial listing includes Jason Robards, Robert Ryan, Lauren Bacall, Bob Crewe, Leonard Bernstein, Connie Chung, Rex Reed, Rosemary Clooney, Roberta Flack, Judy Garland, Jack Palance, Lillian Gish, Boris Karloff, John Madden and Joe Namath.

Also, some high-profile celebrities have wanted to buy apartments in the Dakota only to have their applications shot down by the board. This list includes Billy Joel, Gene Simmons, Carly Simon, Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas.

In 1979, the year before John’s tragic death, author Stephen Birmingham published the book Life at the Dakota: New York’s Most Unusual Address, which of course addresses the seven years that the ex-Beatle lived there with his wife, and later their newborn son. However, the residence of John and Yoko in the famed building is by no means the focal point of the book about the building which at the time of publication was one year shy of the 100th anniversary of the building’s construction.

Stephen Birmingham, a native of Hartford, Connecticut, wrote many best-selling books about wealthy people and “high society”, such as Real Lace: America’s Irish Rich, Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families in New York, The Rest of Us: The Rise of America’s Eastern European Jews, and The Right People: A Portrait of the American Social Establishment.

This is a passage from Birmingham’s book on the Dakota:

A persistent rumor in the Dakota has it that one of the first tenants buried $30,000 in cash in the floor of his seventh-floor apartment. If true, the money reposes beneath the parquet of what is now John Lennon’s and Yoko Ono’s bedroom. It would cost at least $30,000 to dig up the bedroom floor, and besides, the Lennons don’t really need the money.

Another chapter features the following passage:

And yet if the building today is a “melting pot” it is one in which the contents have not quite melted. The Dakota pot seethes and boils with ingredients that have not quite come together, and feuds and rivalries and jealousies and factions abound. Some people, for example, feel that, among other things, the Dakota itself has been divided along an East Side-West Side axis. “The people who live on the sunny side [east] are entirely different from those who live on the shady side [the west, which is now permanently in the shadow of the Mayfair Tower Apartments],” says Sheila Herbert, a young advertising woman who grew up in the Dakota and, like a number of “Dakota Babies”, ended up with her own apartment there. Sunny-siders, Miss Herbert feels, are more sunny-dispositioned, more outgoing and gregarious, give more and better parties, have done splashier things in terms of decorating their apartments. The John Lennons, Roberta Flack and the flamboyant restraunteur-entrepreneur, Warren LeRoy, are all examples of sunny-siders. Shady-siders are more quiet and reserved, and more conservative and staid, less given to party-going and party-tossing, and socializing with their neighbors. Mrs. West is a shady-sider.

Miss Herbert may have a point. But there is more to it than that.

One of the most bizarre supernatural experiences at the Dakota involves the John Lennons. The Lennons have become the Dakota’s Mystery couple, though when they first expressed an interest in the building, there was no small amount of resistance to them. They were assumed to have an unconventional lifestyle. It was feared that they would have large, noisy parties with music and amplifiers. As a result of some drug-related charges in England, there had been a period when the United States State Department had wanted John Lennon out of the country, and there were those at the Dakota who felt the same way about him. But after moving into the Dakota the Lennons kept to themselves, gave few if any entertainments and expressed a wish for absolute privacy. At the same time, when they emerge from the building in their usual costumes (Lennon in blue jeans, a long black cape, a Mexican sombrero, often sucking a baby’s pacifier; his stocky little wife, also in blue jeans, in one of a variety of fright-wig hairdos) and step into His and Her chauffeur-driven limousines, they are a bit conspicuous. In their disguises, however, the Lennons are seldom recognized on the street and are usually dismissed as run-of-the-mill New York eccentrics.

Still, the Lennons continue to amaze. In the elevators, in front of other tenants, John and Yoko Lennon openly discuss their finances, reportedly saying such things as, “Well, we fooled them, didn’t we? It wasn’t thirteen million dollars they were offering – it was only three.”

The Lennons’ immediate neighbors on the seventh floor were not too pleased when John Lennon crisscrossed the staircase balustrade in the elevator entrance with twine, ostensibly to keep the Lennons’ young son Sean from falling through the railing. Lennon also keeps a studio on the ground floor, where he plays his guitar, and neighbors were put off to see that he had scrawled HELTER-SKELTER in large letters across one wall (forgetting that “Helter Skelter” had been the title of a Beatles record long before it became associated with the Charles Manson family). Later, HELTER-SKELTER was removed, and the walls were painted to simulated blue sky and clouds. John Lennon, when he encounters his neighbors, is usually pleasant and friendly; his wife seems less so. As a result of the Lennon’s presence in the building, the Dakota switchboard has had to handle as many as thirty calls a day from fans trying to be put through to one or the other of the Lennons. At times, small groups of fans gather outside the building, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Lennons as they come or go. The fans may not always recognize the Lennons, but they know their cars, and each time a silver limousine appears, there is a small, collective gasp. Occasionally, photographers lurk as well, in which case –altered by Jose, the doorman – the Lennons trick them by using the basement service door. Unsolicited gift packages are always arriving for the Lennons, either through the mail or delivered by hand, and when one of these was found to contain a chalky substance that did not quite look like talcum powder, John ordered that all such gifts immediately be place in the garbage can.

At times, too, Lennon fans have succeeded in slipping past security guards and gates, and getting into the building. There they become nuisances, ringing doorbells trying to find the Lennons. A number of people in the Dakota were rather amused when, at the inaugural reception for President Carter, John Lennon stepped forward and introduced himself to the President. The president looked blank. “I used to be a Beatle,” Lennon explained, a trifle lamely. The president continued to look blank.

Another passage in Birmingham’s book on the famed building is colorful to say the least………

When Lennon moved to the Dakota, they took the apartment that formerly belonged to the actor Robert Ryan. Robert Ryan’s wife Jessie, to whom he was devoted, died of cancer at the Dakota, and because of the unhappy memories and associations the apartment held for him, Ryan moved out soon afterward – to 88 Central Park South, which has become sort of a haven for ex-Dakotans who, by reason of divorce, widowhood or other change of circumstance, have felt it necessary to depart from their beloved building. There, Ryan himself later died.

Before settling in the Ryans’ old apartment, the Lennons decided it would be wise to hold a séance to see what spirits might be inhabiting their new home. A medium was summoned, and she very quickly made contact with Jessie Ryan. Mrs. Ryan informed the Lennons that she considered their apartment her home too, and that she intended to stay there. She would not, however, disturb them in any way. They could lead their lives as they wished. Jessie Ryan was apparently as gracious and charming from the Beyond as she had been in life.

Yoko Ono then telephoned the Ryans’ daughter Lisa to tell her that her late mother was still happily at home in the Dakota. Lisa Ryan was not particularly pleased or amused at the news. “If my mother’s ghost belongs anywhere, it’s here with me and – and not with them,” she said.

The John Lennons are not chic. It is chic to go around town on a motorcycle, the way Paul Segal does, and it is not chic to travel, old money-style in chauffeur-driven limousines, the way the Lennons do. The Lennons may think it is chic, or funny, to enter and alight from their limousines in blue jeans, but they can’t have it both ways. They merely seem odd. Besides, the Lennons have not done much of anything in recent years, and the man who helped revolutionize twentieth century music now seems to have settled into the ways of the haute bourgeoisie.


The famous 2008 biography John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman provides some interesting reading on Lennon’s 1973-1980 residence in the famed building:

With so much else currently absorbing both their energies, the matter rested there for the present. Early in 1973, they came uptown to have lunch with Peter Brown, the former Beatles fixer-in-chief who was now running Robert Stigwood’s New York operation and living in an elegant apartment building named the Langham, on Central Park West. John took an instant fancy to Brown’s spacious pad with its sweeping views over the park and decided on the spot that he wanted to give up the gypsy life in the West Village and move in here. When the Langham proved to have no space available, he simply tried the building next door.

It was called the Dakota, but the place it suggested, even more powerfully than those cobbled SoHo alleys, was Liverpool. Some similar quasi-Gothic sandstone pile might have housed a bank or insurance company in North John, Tithebarn, or Water Street: the wealth and confidence of Mersey shipbuilders might equally have conceived its seven-story façade, embellished with balconies and terra-cotta moldings, its Germanic gables and steep copper roof, weathered to pale green, its street frontage of black iron lamps, flower urns, and decorative sea serpents. The very name suggested a touch of Liverpudlian sarcasm. When it was built, in the 1800s, this part of the Upper West Side was still so sparsely populated that fashionable people thought it as remote as North or South Dakota.

Though once the acme of luxury, the Dakota was no longer in Manhattan’s premier real-estate league and had become the haunt of middle-aged actors, film directors, and similar bohemian types. It had a slightly spooky ambiance, the more so being used as a location for Roman Polanski’s satanic horror film Rosemary’s Baby. Apartments were held on long, relatively inexpensive leases, and fell vacant only rarely. But it chanced that when John and Yoko’s assistant, John Hendricks, made inquiries, the actor Robert Ryan was about to vacate number 72 on the seventh floor, owing to the recent death of his wife.

A single look at the Ryan apartment was enough to sell John on it. Running half the length of a block, it had four bedrooms, stunning views of Central Park’s treetops and – the clincher for him – a distant view of the Lake. He loved the feel of the whole building, so like Victorian Liverpool with its heavy brass light switches, sitdown elevators, and mahogany, oak, and cherrywood paneling. In that crime-and violence-ridden metropolis, it seemed exceptionally well guarded: the entrance arch from West Seventy-second Street had an immense black iron gate and was watched around the clock by a security man in a copper sentry box.

For all the Dakota’s bohemian ambiance, taking up residence there was not easy. The board of residents who ran the building maintained a blanket ban against diplomats (for their fly-by-night tendency) and rock stars. In parallel with the “Save John and Yoko” petitions he was compiling for their immigration case, Hendricks had to organize a campaign to persuade the Dakota’s co-op board that they would not disrupt the place with wild parties or deafening music. Letters were submitted from character witnesses, including the head of the American Episcopal Church, Bishop Paul Moore, and they appeared before the board as neatly dressed and circumspect as in the immigration court. Eventually, they were accepted. The real-estate agent later admitted to Hendricks that he thought they hadn’t stood a chance.

It was 30 years ago today! (Ferris Bueller took that famous day off)

This weekend in 1986, the biggest movie at the box office was the classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a John Hughes teen comedy that appealed to a cross-section of all moviegoers. For young people, it was definitely “the movie to see” in the summer of 1986. The movie has a historical role in Beatles lore as its use of “Twist and Shout” in the most memorable scene of the movie spawned the single’s re-release and entry into the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, which naturally cultivated new found Beatles fans among the younger generation.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was written, produced and directed by John Hughes and takes place in his childhood stomping grounds of both suburban Winetka, Illinois and downtown Chicago. It starred Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller, a high school senior who decides to skip school one day and have with with his two friends, Sloane Peterson and Cameron Frye, played respectively by Mia Sara and Alan Ruck.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was made on $5.8 million budget and grossed $70.1 million, ranking as one of the top-grossing movies of 1986.

The scene with “Twist and Shout” occurs when the trio stumbles upon the Von Stueben Day Parade in Chicago. It took much choreographic preparation and several days of shooting to pull of these famous scenes. First, Ferris gets up onto a German float and lip synchs the 1963 hit “Danke Schoen” by Wayne Newtown; the 21 year-old singer Wayne Newton had placed the Bert Kaempfert classic at number 13 on the charts.

Then, the famous scene with “Twist and Shout” made the movie. John Hughes was a major Beatles fan and stated that every day during the 56 days of shooting the movie he listened to the White Album in its entirety. Because the song was featured prominently in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Twist and Shout” was re-released as a single, reaching number 23 and staying in the Top 40 for seven weeks. In 1964, “Twist and Shout” stalled for an amazing four weeks at the number two position but never made the jump up to the top slot. It spent 16 weeks in the Top 40 in 1964. The combined 1964 and 1986 total of 23 weeks in the Top 40 give the single the distinction of being the Beatles single with the most weeks in the Top 40 at 23.

The song received an additional boost when the Rodney Dangerfield movie Back to School, which was released a week after Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, featured the comedian singing the Beatles version of “Twist and Shout”.

A previous blog post from January 2015 about “Got To Get You Into My Life” covers another Beatles hit that was released after the break-up of the Fab Four and fared well on the charts ten years after it was recorded.

Wings guitarist Henry McCullough dies at age 72

It is obvious that BeatlesHistorian.com has been “off the grid” for a whole month! In that time, original Wings guitarist Henry McCullough died on June 14 at age 72.

This is the New York Times obituary for McCullough. Billboard published the article “Paul McCartney reacts to death of Wings guitarist Henry McCullough”.

A native of Derry in Northern Ireland, McCartney was the only Irish person to perform at Woodstock, playing in Joe Cocker’s band. He was chosen as the first lead guitarist for McCartney’s new band Wings in 1972.

McCullough therefore played lead guitarist on Wings’ first released single, “Give Ireland Back to the Irish”, which was written in response to the infamous 1972 “Bloody Sunday” incident in Derry in Northern Ireland in which British troops opened fire on unarmed civilian Catholic protesters, killing 14 and wounding an additional 14. The song topped the pop charts in the Republic of Ireland and reached number 21 in the U.S. However, “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” was immediately banned by the BBC and thus did not receive airplay on UK stations. This banning was a major coup for McCartney as Lennon had always been considered the more political of the two; ironically, Lennon’s song on the infamous 1972 incident in Northern Ireland, “The Luck of the Irish”, went largely unnoticed. The controversy over “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” resulted in Henry McCullough’s brother being jumped by a group of thugs after leaving a bar in Derry. In addition, Wings concerts were picketed in the UK.

Two other good articles are McCullough’s native Ireland from Irish newspapers, the Irish Times “Henry McCullough: Irish Guitarist Who Played at Woodstock and With Wings” and the Belfast TelegraphMourners Say Goodbye to Henry McCullough with Music and Songs”.

Very Interesting! : “Got My Mind Set on You”

“Got My Mind Set on You” is etched in the soundtrack of the memory banks of most people who were listening to music in the late 1980’s. This number one hit for George Harrison is significant in many ways. First, it represents the last number one hit in the U.S. by a member of The Beatles, hitting the top slot for one week in February 1988. Of course, Harrison was the first ex-Beatle to score a number one hit when “My Sweet Lord” topped the charts for four weeks beginning in the last week of December 1970, giving him the distinction of being the first and the last ex-Beatle to top the charts in the U.S.
Furthermore, for a period of several months in 1988, George Harrison held the remarkable distinction having the number hits the longest length apart, as 15 years elapsed between “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) in 1973 and 1988’s “Got My Mind Set on You”. Surprisingly, The Beach Boys scored the number one hit “Kokomo” in November 1888, 22 years after their last number one hit, “Good Vibrations” in December 1966.

In terms of hits by ex-Beatles in the U.S., the song broke the longstanding tie as George, Ringo and John each had two number one hits. This 1988 chart-topper gave Harrison three number ones, catapulting him over Ringo and John. Furthermore, “Got My Mind Set on You”, written by Rudy Clark in 1962, represented only the second time an ex-Beatle had topped with charts in the U.S. with a song that he did not write. The first such instance was when Ringo scored a number one in 1973 with “You’re Sixteen”, which was written by Richard Sherman and Roger Sherman, and previously was a hit for Johnny Burnette in 1960. Songwriter Rudy Clark also wrote “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)” which was a # 6 song for Betty Everett in 1964 and later a Top 40 hit for Cher in 1991 as it was featured in her movie Mermaids.

The James Ray version of “Got My Mind Set On You” was recorded in 1962 but did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 despite adequate airplay. When The Beatles each had two weeks of vacation in the summer of 1963, Harrison went to Chicago to visit his older sister Louise and her family. He always liked the song and bought a copy of the 45 at a Chicago record store and brought it back to Liverpool. Incidentally, George visited many Chicago record stores in those two weeks. He was accompanied to Chicago by his older brother Peter; the two brothers had a project. The Beatles were already famous in Great Britain with number one hits and other hits; they canvassed every record store in Chicago to see if any of the stores were selling Beatles records. They found that not only did any of the stores not have Beatles records, but none of the owners or employees of the stores had ever heard of The Fab Four. In a matter of months the climate would change drastically for The Beatles in the U.S.

Harrison bought the record as he loved the song, in addition to being familiar with James Ray because in earlier years The Beatles many times included the Ray song “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody” in their set. He always kept “Got My Mind Set On You” in the back of his mind. In the sessions that preceded recording of the Cloud Nine album in 1987, there were jams sessions among Harrison and the musicians who would appear on the album. In The Billboard Book of Number Hits by Fred Bronson, there is a passage in which Harrison describes the twist of fate that inspired the recording of the 25 year-old song; “I did that song because Jim Keltner got this drum pattern going one day that was a cross between swing and rock. Gary Wright turned around and said, “Hey, doesn’t that remind you of that song ‘Got My Mind Set on You?’ I was so surprised that anybody else had ever heard that tune!”

The Cloud Nine album marked the first of several collaborations between Harrison and ELO frontman Jeff Lynne. When Harrison voiced that he was looking for an innovating producer for his upcoming album, Dave Edmunds recommended Lynne and set up a meeting between the two. A major Beatles fan, Lynne was thrilled to work with the ex-Beatle; the ELO influence can be heard throughout Cloud Nine, especially with Lynne doing backing vocals on “Got My Mind Set on You”. The following year Harrison and Lynne would form the group The Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. Both Harrison and Lynne received credit as co-producers of “Got My Mind Set on You”. Of course, 18 years later Jeff Lynne would produce the two new Beatles songs that used old vocal tracks of John Lennon, “Free as a Bird” and “Free Love”, for the Beatles Anthology CD; George Martin opted out of producing the two songs primary because he felt it was not a good idea to record a song using old vocal tracks of the deceased Beatle but also because he had experienced some hearing loss and such a project requiring perfection would be a difficult task because of the hearing loss.

“Got My Mind Set on You” was released in 1987 when MTV still showed music videos on a regular basis and it received ample airplay. According to The Quiet One: A Life of George Harrison by Alan Clayson, Paul McCartney backed out of an agreement to appear in a couple of videos for singles off of Cloud Nine. George was disappointed that the first video with McCartney was supposed to be the one for his non-original “Got My Mind Set on You”. The video for the single consisted of an adolescent couple flirting in an amusement arcade while a video of George and his band played in a nickelodeon. With music videos still being played constantly on MTV in 1987, Warners made the case that a better video was needed to promote the single and the album. The second video, which is by the far the better known of the two videos, featured Harrison playing the guitar and singing in his study, which evolves into the furniture moving and taxidermies on the wall partaking in the singing. A memorable part of the video is when a stuntman stepped in for Harrison and does backflips. The second video was credited with helping to propel the song to becoming an international hit. In addition to the U.S., it topped the charts in Australia, Belgium and Ireland, while scoring in the top ten in almost every country in the free world with pop music charts.

The second single from the album, “When We Was Fab”, reached # 23 in the U.S.

To this day, it ranks as an extreme rarity in that the day in which The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 20, 1988, “Got My Mind Set On You” was the number one song in the U.S.!

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